Pies and Stuff
by born to lose 7
Summary: A series of one-shots inspired by quotes from The Indigo Spell.
1. Jared Sage

"Adrian, no." I said firmly, ignoring the delicious pie that sat in front of me.

"Come on, Sage. You still haven't had that gelato and I doubt that the amount of calories in this one bite would be more than that." He said, and I was rather impressed that he'd thought up something so logical so quickly. Maybe he was discovering it was the easiest way to win me over.

We were currently at a place atrociously named "Pies n Stuff". Which lead me to many negative thoughts and rhetorical questions such as: Who names their restaurant something like that, and what did "stuff" stand for anyway? Maybe if you were lucky you'd find a special toy inside your slice of pie? Did it sell way too many copies of an idiotic teen romance book about forbidden love?" To anyone who didn't know this place, the possibilities of the word "stuff" in their title could be endless! The confusion could jeopardize their business and cause them to lose customers, however, I knew that there weren't a lot of people who analyzed things as thoroughly as I do, so maybe it didn't affect the store as much as I previously thought it would.

The reason I was currently here was no other than the infamous Adrian Ivashkov. He had dragged me here after I had proposed we get back on civil terms, for Jill's sake, and put the "incident" behind us. It had resulted in a heated argument at his apartment, but he'd eventually agreed to it. Right after were done arguing Adrian had completely changed from irritated to cheerful, in a matter of seconds, something he had done many times before but never ceased to surprise me. He had declared that to secure our friendship, I wasn't quite sure when our agreement to being civil became friendship, we had to have a proper meal, but he had quickly decided that he wasn't 'in the mood' for a full meal and that we should skip to desert, so by Adrian's request (even though he clearly insinuated I didn't have a choice) we headed over to Pies n stuff. We had taken his yellow mustang, and he had driven which made me think that he wasn't as carefree as I thought after our intense debate, because under normal circumstances he would have let me drive.

Adrian had been trying to get me to take a bite of the pie he had ordered for me, yes _for me_, meaning without my consent, for the past ten minutes. Quite honestly it had been getting on my nerves, and judging from his face he knew that he was bothering me an awful lot and also that my patience was wearing thin. So he shouldn't have been so shocked when I had snapped at him that I'd have a bite if he stopped bothering me about it. Looking down at the pie, I regretted my reckless response towards Adrian's prompting, because after all it had sugar, and salt and so many things that would help me gain weight. As if I needed any help. The fork was nearing my mouth when I'd heard my name being called out.

"Sydney." The voice said. I spun around to face my father, Jared Sage, a face I'd hadn't expected to see in Palm Springs, which was sad considering it was nearing Christmas holidays.

He looked at my fork, then back at me, then at Adrian, all with the same level of disgust and disdain. I was suddenly glad that I had my own slice of pie when I thought how unprofessional it would look taking a bite out of Adrian's. It would've looked like, like a date, and considering my recently redeemed reputation from vamp-lover to exemplary alchemist, it wouldn't have gone over well with the superiors who were still in doubt about my loyalty. I was hoping that his disgust was due to the proximity in which we were to a Moroi and not my eating habits, but those hopes were quickly squashed when he'd spoken again.

"Are you sure you should be eating that?" My father questioned as he looked at my fork that had a small amount of pie piled on the end and, well at me, in general.

He looked at my face, which I suspected the primary reason was to make eye contact was as if to ask me: really Sydney? You weren't fat enough? You really thought that someone like you would _need _to eat_ more_ pie? He looked at my body as if to make me look at it too and prove his point. Gingerly I put down my fork with the uneaten piece of pie still on it. My automatic reaction was to look over at the Moroi sitting across from me in the quaint black and white checkered restaurant that was Pies n stuff. I was nervous about his reaction, and judging from the expression he wore I had every reason to be.

"_Adrian's face was the picture of perfect politeness and restraint. Meaning that something disastrous was about to happen."_

"Actually, _sir_, he said mockingly, I think Sage should eat that. Do you have any idea how many problems come with being underweight? I was forced to learn about it once, of course I was planning to sleep through that class but it happened to be one of those projects that even my charm couldn't get me out of" he said appropriately with a disbelieving tone and look to match.

"Anyway, Mr. ….Sage, was it? The list extremely long and a real pain in the ass to read so maybe it is in her very best interest to have _a _piece of pie." He finished, a fiercely protective look in his emerald eyes coupled with a mocking tone that he had kept religiously through his response to my father's comment. I was actually kind of happy he had just talked back to my father, I was half-expecting him to punch him in the face.

"Sydney I need to talk to you, outside." He continued, completely ignoring Adrian's statement.

I knew Adrian wouldn't react well to the snub, but was too concerned about my own well-being to busy myself with his feelings about being ignored. I was scared because if I knew one thing it was that Jared Sage almost always brought bad news. It would be fitting that he could be the one that brought the worst news of all for an alchemist like me: Re-education center. I quietly followed him outside and waited for him to speak.

To my relief it was a mostly routine check-up on Jill's state in Palm Springs and the only reason he'd been sent to see me and not the other way around was because mom had asked him- though the appropriate term would be closer to demand- that he hand-delivered me my gifts from our family for Christmas. I had received two packaged boxes; one from Carly and one from mom and a gift- card from dad to which I suspected were more out of tradition than his warm fuzzy feelings towards me. I hadn't gotten anything from Zoe, so it was safe to say she was still mad at me. Nearing the conversation he asked me why I had my phone off, why I was having _pie_ with a _Moroi_ and why I made him have to ask a _damn_ vampire about my whereabouts. I quickly responded that we were having a business meal, even though it was dessert but we all know how strange vampires were, and that having my phone on would be tantamount to not taking the meeting seriously. Which could reflect badly on the Alchemists. Lying was very easy because a part of it _was_ true; Adrian and I were having a business dinner/dessert, even though it was on different terms. He seemed to believe the lie, which meant that I had become a better liar or that he was tired. I guessed the latter.

I returned into the restaurant as Jared drove away and the moment I sat down I was engulfed in an Adrian lecture. I caught pieces of it, mostly about my eating habits, but my mind was too preoccupied about the look on my father's face when he caught me eating something as fattening as pie. Eventually, I tuned back in to the green-eyed Moroi's lecture.

"Seriously Sage, you shouldn't listen to him, he's an asshole-

"Hey! That's my father you're talking about!" I exclaimed hoping to stop the lecture by embarrassing him for blatantly insulting one of my family members- not that I minded- but as his expression didn't change and he quickly got back into lecturing me I realized my feeble attempt to stop him from talking didn't work, in other words, no dice.

I looked back down at my hands until he finished. When he was finally satisfied enough to stop ranting I looked back up at him. His hair was a little more dishevelled than usual as if he had fisted strands of his hair during his monologue. His crazy hair complimented his expression which was a mixture of anger, frustration, pity, sadness and disbelief. I suddenly felt outraged, he pitied _me_? Now that was something that I didn't want from anyone, least of all him.

"Let's get out of here Sage." He said as he laid a couple of crumpled up bills on the table next to two plates ; one empty and one with an almost untouched piece of pie laying on top of it.

I opened my mouth to protest him paying for my food- even if I hadn't eaten it- but he cut me off already knowing what I was going to say.

"I'm paying. I ordered everything so it's only fair that I pay for everything too." He added forcefully.

It surprised me a bit, considering that this was about the time that he would make some kind of joke by now, but studying the expression on his face, I doubted he was in that sort of mood. We exited Pies n Stuff and I looked longingly at the beautiful sunset, because in all honesty, it calmed me, especially after the stressing episode with my father. I was so absorbed in observing the scenery that I almost didn't catch the car keys thrown toward me. I looked over at Adrian and was sure that my confused expression showed on my face because he replied quickly after I had gained possession of the keys to the spring time yellow Mustang.

"Now normally I don't lend my car keys to emotionally distraught damsels in distress but, I don't know how to drive a stick."

He shrugged nonchalantly; a wicked devil-may-care grin on his face. I shook my head at him as we both got in the car. Even though I was certain he was only doing this; the mustang, the jokes, the grin, to cheer me up, it nonetheless brought a smile to my face. It was a small one, one that I had wiped off my face seconds after it appeared, but it was probable he had seen it. I looked into his emerald green eyes and saw something I was certain was in mine when I had cheered him up with a cherry slush: contentment. He was content just being able to make me feel a little bit better after this horrible encounter. It wasn't just probable that Adrian had seen my smile, it was definite. His eyes told it all, his beautiful, expressive deep green eyes. Too late, I realized I'd been staring at him too long, with the keys not yet in the ignition but still nestled safely into the palm of my hand.

"Sage, I don't care how much you love this car. I'm not walking home just so you can be alone with it." He said, his tone light, automatically breaking the spell his beautiful eyes had cast for him.

**A/N : Tell me if you want me to write more prompts in your reviews. If you do review it. I hope you liked it! **

**Disclaimer : what I own? Only the ideas coming out of my head while waiting for The Indigo Spell. So basically the plot of this Fanfic , and even then the idea was inspired from a quote so… like half .**


	2. Chapter 2: Slam!

**Slam!**

I felt the wind rushing past me as everything became a blur.

My breath caught. I felt weightless; I felt nothing then suddenly…**Slam! **

I was in excruciating pain, it was impossible not to cry out. Two voices rang out, each expressing their worry. One was deep and smooth, the other high-pitched and scholarly. Ms. Terwilliger and Adrian rushed over to me. Or well, their forms did, it was hard to focus on them or make out their features… They were too blurry! I hated it, I hated having the handicap. I hated magic. I hated being confused about Adrian. I hated –

"Ahhh!" I cried.

The pain in my leg took over every sense and thought in that moment; interrupting my pessimistic tirade. Not that I didn't earn it, I had every right to be as horrible as I wanted to be in my thoughts… especially when I had only gotten three hours of sleep. Nightmares had thwarted my attempts at sleep last night. Horrible nightmares, the pain came back and this time I managed to grit my teeth before crying out. I hissed.

"What the hell happened, Jackie!" He shouted, clearly outraged.

"It seems that the spell has backfired." Ms. Terwilliger replied, attempting to sound calm and controlled and failing miserably. Even I could hear her voice shaking slightly, that or I hit my head harder than I thought and had faulty hearing.

"Backfired! You never said anything about a spell harming her!" Adrian growled. Ms. Terwilliger stayed silent. He then took a deep breath- to calm himself I would suppose- and when he began talking. It was in a polite and authoritative tone, laced with barely contained anger.

"Did she know this could happen? Did you warn her before you dragged her into this?"

"I informed her of the consequences of an incorrectly executed spell. She knew this could happen, though I've never seen her fail one yet… I was hoping one as powerful as this would go smoothly as well."

"Fine. It's nice to know she knew that she could maybe blow her head off if she wasn't paying attention." He said and turned to me. "Damn, Sage if you wanted to take risks we could've went bungee jumping instead."

His blurry figure got down onto its knees. I could feel his breath on my face so I assumed he had leveled his face with mine. I could determine his features better now, though my mind seemed more focused on the colours. Dark brown hair, pale skin, green, green eyes. Those eyes tried to hold me but it was ineffective, my leg still hurt too much. I couldn't give my full concentration to anything else. He spoke softly.

"Sydney, this is going to hurt; but I'm going to carry you to the couch. We need to see if you're hurt."

I felt myself nod. And I was glad that things seemed in focus again. Adrian gently slid an arm around my back and the other underneath my legs. I felt more pressure as he stood up, me still in his arms. He unknowingly had one hand on my wound. He noticed within a few seconds and quickly maneuvered his hand to my knee. But it was a second to late as I quietly groaned in pain and my vision blurred **again.** Well, it was nice well it lasted.

"Shit, her leg. She's got glass pretty deep in there…" He trailed off. Adrian then told my hippie history/magic teacher that I needed to be taken to the hospital.

"Nonsense, we have the materials to deal with that here. I am trained in first aid. Are you?" She announced.

"Yeah, but not in the way you're thinking." He mumbled under his breath. He was still walking; he took a few more steps before gently placing me on the couch.

"What do I need to do?"

"Give her this to drink." She instructed, handing him a bottle.

I grabbed it from him and gulped it down greedily. My throat was dry and I was feeling faint, but after I gave it back to Adrian my throat was on fire and had a weird aftertaste. But other than that, I was feeling ok. My leg didn't feel that bad anymore, and I was significantly less stressed as a result. Actually, I was feeling pretty good, really good, amazing, in fact. I started to giggle. A lot. I heard footsteps and then a gasp.

"You weren't supposed to give her that much! Just enough to numb the pain not get her drunk!"

"Well I'm sorry I wasn't given specific instructions, and she kind of took it from me." Was his snarky response to her reprimand.

I started to get a bit curious, they seemed worried. Why? I felt great. Fantastic. Fabulous. Fantabulous!

"Adrian, what did I just drink?" I said.

"_It's Kahlua, Sage. Packed with sugar and coffee flavour." _

I still didn't see the problem, except the sugar part of course, but Adrian didn't care about that. I searched my brain for why Adrian seemed concerned. Drink. Drink. Drunk?

"Was there alcohol?" I said slowly. I couldn't seem to talk as fast as I usually did.

"Yes, but not a lot. Remind to never let you participate in a drinking game. Speaking of which, Jackie, why give her Kahlua, instead of say, whiskey?" He asked.

"Only alcohol I had. Now, you said there was glass in her leg?" Ms. Terwilliger answered.

"Yes, from your table. It's done for by the way… Are you almost done?" Impatience was clear in his tone along with worry.

I remembered that Adrian didn't know what to do in these situations. His first instinct was to use spirit but he knew that I would run away kicking and screaming if he did, injured leg be damned. So he felt helpless. I didn't feel that different drunk. I helpfully told them so. I received strange looks.

"Hold her still." She reappeared with professional looking pliers and a needle and thread along with some gauze and that cold stuff. For injured people, they put it in a bag. Ice? Yeah, she had a bag of ice. She was also holding what looked to be a bottle of disinfectant. Now, what did that mean again?

I felt sharp pain and I squirmed to get away from it, as it was human nature to do so. Adrian did his duty and held me down as she disinfected, pulled, and stitched up my leg. Gauze was then wrapped around my leg. Then a cold bag of ice was pressed up against it. I figured she'd ask me about my leg, but she surprised me with a completely different question.

"What is your name? Or rather your fake name?"

"Sydney Katherine Melrose" I answered uneasily, wondering the point of these questions.

"Can you tell me which school you attend?"

"Amberwood Prep-preperatony-preporatoryory-preparatory Boarding School in Palm Springs Ma'am."

"Our names?"

" Your name is Jaqueline Terwilliger and his is Adrian Iv-Melrose. Ma'am" I hastily replied, almost 'blowing our cover'. Though there was no doubt in my mind that - wow I never noticed how long her name was before- knew me Adrian and I were not related.

She clapped her hands together in delight.

"Wonderful! She doesn't have a concussion and her leg is stitched up. Make sure she keeps icing her leg though. She will be in a lot of pain once the alcohol wears off. Numbing it will help. It should be alright to take her back to your apartment. Although, you shouldn't let her walk." She advised.

Some of her words struck me.

"His apartment?" I blurted out.

"Yes, you shouldn't be left alone in case something happens. If you`re worried about school, I am planning to call Desiree and inform her that you`ll be with family. "

My number one excuse was thrown out the door. And my tongue felt heavy, that would make arguing hard. I decided to go along with their plan. I was once again scooped up into Adrian's arms and carried to the car. He juggled me in his arms and managed to open the door without putting me down. He placed me on the seat, closed the door and went around to the driver's side. I attempted to put on my seatbelt, but for once in my life, it seemed way too complicated! Two larger, paler hands appeared and helped me as the owner of them let out a sigh.

The drive was quiet, I was too tired or drunk to want to say anything and Adrian, well I don't just wasn't speaking. He had a nice car though. We pulled up in front of the apartment building and made our way to his place. We had both entered the yellow room and I quickly threw myself on the plaid sofa. Well since he was still carrying me I just kind of pointed to the couch a lot and he put me there. This reminded me of something, why? Or as the French would say Déja vu. No they wouldn't, it would be more like: Sa me rappelle de quelque chose. Hey! Les misérables was about the French revolution and French people, they spoke French! Prisoner 24601, that was Adrian. No it wasn't, but in his emails it said so. Why would he lie to me? I suddenly wanted to say something. So, I did.

"I'm not happy."

Adrian had been doing something before but his attention was now focused on me.

"I am not happy" I repeated. Adrian said nothing.

"But, I'm not supposed to be happy. Supposed to work, not be happy. Work is supposed to help other people. Make other people happy, but why does it have to make me miserable? Can't I be happy too? No. I can't, if I did what made me happy… Adrian, why do you love me?"

"You know why." It seemed like Adrian didn't like talking to me drunk.

"Why won't you say anything? You said you would always love me… why? Why are you such an idiot! Nothing can happen between us, ever. Never ever ever ever ever! So give up and move on goddammit!"

I shouted half angry, half really, really sad.

"Sage-" He started with a sigh, looking like he was about to explain something to a kindergartener for the hundredth time. That made me angry, and frustrated.

"No you listen Ivashko- Ivashn- Adrian! You don't understand the consequences! Not only for me but for yourself! You are a royal Moroi, your family would hate me and maybe even you too! Your messed up society would shun you and neither me nor you would fit in anywhere! And I, I would be sent to re-education, my family would hate me and I would end up not caring about anyone! I wouldn't even be there! I wouldn't be with you! They wouldn't let me! They'll send me there!" I said. "A robot." I whispered, thinking about the victims of re-education. "DID YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT ANY OF THAT! " I yelled, he wasn't saying anything. Why wasn't he saying anything? "Why do I feel this way, I shouldn't its wrong, unnatural. Not right. Not right! NOT RIGHT! You shouldn't love me it's **wrong**." I continued.

"It may seem wrong to you, and you can yell all you want about how your feelings for me are wrong. But don't you dare start telling me what I feel for you is wrong! It isn't! Love isn't wrong Sydney and you have no right, no right to tell me how I should feel." He replied forcefully. There was fire in his eyes, green fire and his expression was so, so full of passion. So, I kissed him.

It was amazing, his lips were just as I remembered, and for a while he kissed me back. It was like magic. There were no words for the feeling I got so I stopped trying to use them. Then swiftly he pulled away. Why? Did he hate me now too?

"Why did you … go away?" My brain had trouble thinking of anything better to say than that.

"There are a lot of things you shouldn't do drunk, Sage. That was one of them. "He then picked me up and brought me to a room, his room I think, and set me on the bed.

"But, I want to." I feebly protested. He chuckled.

"There will be plenty of time for that when you're sober. Get some rest, tomorrow I want more details on whatever Re-education is."


End file.
